Hello, On Jan 22 13:26 Claudio Freire wrote (excerpt):
If you want to test randomness, you can use a better test suite (like NIST's, one that won't result in false positives). If you're already using the better test suite, then the false positive is not a false positive, it's a positive, it shows some cases when the generator isn't random, and should be investigated.
Only out of curiosity: A random number generator that generates only the numbers 0 and 1 should produce a sequence of n same numbers with probability 2 * ( 1 / ( 2^n ) ) = 1 / 2^(n-1) = 2^(1-n) There is a non-zero probability to get a sequence of same numbers with arbitrary length n. Because of the randomness a sequence of n same numbers can happen at any time. I wonder if it is possible to make a test suite that finishes in finite time that never shows false positives or false negatives. I think it is not possible to make such a test suite. Reasoning: Assume the test suite starts and the first sample is a sequence of n same numbers. The probability of this sequence is 2^(1-n) so that the test suite should check at least 1 / 2^(1-n) = 2^(n-1) subsequent samples to make some kind of reasonable decision (*) whether or not the first sample happened with reasonable probability. Because n is not limited, the test suite cannot finish in finite time. (*) I am not at all a random number generator test suite expert. I don't know how such a test suite actually makes its decisions whether or not the random number generator is good or bad. Therefore I called it "Reasoning" and not "Proof". Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+owner@opensuse.org